By Kingsley Omose
I was barely able to restrain myself from commenting on the Israeli Defence Forces bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City that happened just over a week ago, killing two women and a man, when it occurred as I considered the voices of condemnation that came from some very, very, very unusual quarters.
About 400 Palestinians were living on the grounds of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City along with the parish priest and his parishioners, in the only church in Gaza, hoping that for this very reason, they would at least be spared from IDF bombing that had already devasted 85% of Gaza.
The Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City was brought to promince when it was discovered that the late Catholic potiff, Pope Francis, had prior to his passing, been making daily phone calls to the parish priest of the church to check on the well-being and safety of the parishioners since the IDF invasion of Gaza in October 2023.
Well, precisely what everyone inside and outside Gaza feared, save perhaps the IDF, happened, the IDF dropped a bomb right through the roof of the church killing 3 people inside and wounding 9 others, including the parish priest.
As expected, voices of condemnation over the IDF bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City rang out from various parts of the world, expected and unexpected but something unusual came from the White House from no other person than Donald J Trump, the US President.
It was a phone call placed directly to and a very, very, very rare rebuke of the Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, over the IDF bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City, coming from the head of its main military weapons supplier, financier, and defender of Israel at the United Nations Security Council through the exercise of its veto vote.
Of course, that very, very, very rare rebuke from Donald Trump over the IDF bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City, in turn, triggered an equally very, very, very rare statement issued by Bibi Netanyahu himself deeply apologising for this action, blaming it on an errant or misfired bomb.
The killings by the IDF through mainly bombings of over 59,000 + Palestinians in Gaza, of whom over 70% are women and children, and the killings of 1000 + Palestinians near GHF Food Distribution Centres through shootings by IDF soldiers and AI enable drones, have not ganered condemnation from such high quarters as this IDF bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City.
Neither has the destruction of over 85% of the infrastructure of Gaza, including hospitals, schools, all these through IDF bombings, forced immediate evacuations and movements of Palestinians from one part of the Gaza trip to the other, done ceaselessly that now over 2 million + Palestinians have been squeezed into just 20% of the Gaza Strip.
Similarly, the complete wiping from the earth again through IDF bombings of 2000 + complete Palestinian families spaning generations, complete wiping out of medical doctors and their families, killing of 250 + journalists, and 1300 + medical support personnel, and close to 400 aid workers did not move the needle.
Likewise, there was no batting of any eyelid from these high quarters allowing for the famine like conditions and starvation in Gaza following the decision of the Israeli government to implement deliberate food and humanitarian aid blockades for the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza for 90 days +, all this for people who 100% depends on food and humanitarian aid for survival.
Of course, the decision by the IDF to eliminate 400 + food distribution centres operated by UNRWA and other aid organisations in Gaza for only 4 GHF food distribution centres for the 2 million + peoples living in Gaza, resulting in the US backed GHF food distribution centres now becoming killing fields and escalating starvation in Gaza, also attracted no condemnation from these high quarters.
So, my restraint in not commenting was most unusual especially with all the illogicality that is evident in trying to use a scale of morality, conscience, empathy, human and eternal justice and reaconing, in weighing all the genocidal actions, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli government and the IDF, and their overt and complicit supporters against the IDF bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City.
But following the IDF bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City, church leaders in Jerusalem were able to primarily for this reason, make a four day visit to Gaza to see things for themselves, that on their return home, they say has left them with broken hearts regarding what they saw and heard and felt while they were in Gaza.
The Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who was part of the visit, told journalists that they saw starving people and children not “batting an eyelid” at the sound of bombing. He added, “We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of simple meal. This is humiliation that is hard to bear when you see it with your own eyes. It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable.” (BBC)
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III, who was also part of the visit to Gaza, also said, “Our Church will stand in solidarity with the whole people of Gaza.” (BBC) Pizzaballa and Theophilos III said, “We met people totally starved. We walked through the dust of ruins, past collapsed buildings and tents everywhere: in courtyards, alleyways, on the streets and on the beach.” (BBC)
The BBC also reported that at the news conference, Pizzaballa noted that “Christians (in Gaza) were suffering in the same ways as other Palestinians. Three people died in our community, but thousands had already died in Gaza.” These statements came from a place moral and spiritual clarity by these church leaders for and on behalf of those in the Christian world who still have consciences because there are some whose consciences have been seared.
These statements by the church leaders allow for the illogical to be considered, the value or otherwise of tourist visits to Israel to visit sites that are considered sacred only to end up putting their monies into Israeli government coffers that go into funding the genocidal colonisation project in the Occupied Palestinian Territories especially Gaza.
These statements by the church leaders allow for an evaluation of the whole erroneous belief that the modern State of Israel that was founded in 1947 and made up predominantly of settler European Jews following the end of WW2, there are still 2 million Palestinians living in Israel, are the same Israel of God referred to in the context of the Word of God. (Galatians 6:15-16)
These European settlers and their descendants living in historical Palestine and now called the State of Israel following the atrocities of the Holocaust against the Jews by Nazi Germany resulting in their mass emigration from Europe to Palestine, and who all still have dual citizenship of Israel and their originating countries, have nothing to do with the principles and values of the Kingdom of God demonstrateed through Christ Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
So, in all the restraint I exercised from commenting on the Israeli Defence Forces bombing of the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City that happened just over a week, killing two women and a man, when it occurred enabled me to see how this feather of bombing of the only church in Gaza could weigh more than the stone of the IDF genocidal actions, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, done to Palestinians in Gaza on a perceptional depth scale weight basis to those in the Western and church worlds.
Omose, a public analyst contributed this article from Lagos
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